Andy Duffy
The president’s office is paving the way for Nelson Mandela to break his promise to South Africa that no teachers would be kicked out of their jobs.
Department of Education officials and teaching unions both view the president’s promise, made last year, as binding and a key political obstacle to dismissing state teachers.
But Mandela’s office said this week that the situation facing state education has now changed, and that the president has to reassess the position on a “continued basis”.
The first signs that the search is on for a presidential escape route have appeared in the form of a specialist government task team, finalising its recommendations on reining in gross overspending in provincial education. Forced retrenchment, including axing permanent teachers, is likely to top the list of options.
“There has to be a continuous assessment of the position,” presidential representative Parks Mankahlana said. “You can’t hold a person to a statement he made last year. The president would like to look at the situation. The education department is doing what it has to do.”
Mankahlana says the president has not yet met Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu about the issue, and is waiting for Bengu to request a meeting.
Bengu’s special adviser, Thami Mseleku, said the government task team, including officials from education and finance, will hand its report to Cabinet next week. A decision on retrenchments is expected soon after.
The job-loss debate so far has focussed on axing 60 000 temporary teachers by allowing their contracts to expire. But Mseleku said that if the axe has to swing, permanent posts will also be on the block. “Every possible measure that might be needed will be taken,” he added.
He declined to say how many permanent teaching staff may go, saying the decision would rest with each province. Ballooning personnel costs have left provincial education departments in crisis. KwaZulu- Natal expects to overspend its education budget by R800-million, North West and Northern provinces will exceed their budgets by R40-million each, and Gauteng by R200-million.
The government’s voluntary retrenchment and redeployment efforts have both proven expensive flops. The provinces’ attempts to cut personnel costs have also been stymied by a moratorium on forced retrenchments in the public service.
Depending on the recommendations in the task team’s report, the Cabinet may agree to the principle of forced public-service retrenchments. The actual mechanism for trimming the state’s 370 000 permanent teaching staff would have to be worked out in the Education Labour Relations Council, which also includes representatives from teaching unions. Dumping temporary teachers would represent an immediate saving. Retrenching permanent teachers is likely to be phased in over several years, given the likely cost of severance packages.